


like lighting in a bottle

by yaxleywrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, modern!AU, nerve!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 08:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10532484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaxleywrites/pseuds/yaxleywrites
Summary: Welcome to Nerve, a game like Truth or Dare. Watchers pay to watch, Players play to win. Are you a watcher or a player? Lily Evans wants to be player. She thinks. It’s just one dare. Do you accept? Nerve!AU. Set in Modern time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written over the span of a few hours and is entirely un-beta’d. I’ve had a bit of an obsession with the concept of Nerve since I saw it in theaters, and while listening to the (fantastic) album and searching for Jily fics to read, I couldn’t shake the idea of, ‘what would Jily do’ from my head, and voila! A monster was born.

The bell above the door makes a loud ringing noise that echoes through the tiny diner Lily’s just stepped into. Though not quite as loud as to drown out Mary’s chatter.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.” Lily’s eyes narrowed at Mary, who was twirling a blonde piece of hair around her finger, ignorant to her best friend’s growing upset.

“Why, because I’m ‘perfect prefect Evans’?” Mary rolled her eyes at Lily, pushing her towards a booth at the middle of the restaurant.

“No, because you’re not a fan of trends or following a pack,” Lily huffed softly, but fell into the seat across from Mary. “You know its true, don’t act like a prat over it—this isn’t like you Lil. Nerve goes against everything you stand for! I mean, I knew what Amelia said had been riling you up, but I didn’t realize you were actually going to _listen_ to her.”

Lily dropped her eyes to her phone screen, where the Nerve website had completely taken over. Her screen name, _LilyE12_ , and her location stared back at her reminding her of the split second decision she’d made after Amelia Bones had called her ‘too perfect to play with the group’. She didn’t know who she hated more right now, Amy for saying it, or herself for knowing that the statement was partially true.

_No it wasn’t, because she had joined hadn’t she? And as a_ player _none the less._

“Look Mar, I’ll do one little dare and be done with it, alright?” Mary sighed from across the table, and eyed Lily with a mixture of concern and pity. “It’s just one dare, how terrible could it possibly be?”

Lily tapped the phone screen, pressing the large ‘Dare’ button and waited. For a moment, nothing happened, and Mary muttered a ‘thank god’ under her breath, until the phone dinged.

‘Kiss someone in the diner for at least five seconds’  

“You’ve got to be ruddy kidding me.” Her eyes shot up to meet Mary’s. “I have to kiss some stranger?”

Mary shook her head, her eyes pleading. “You don’t have to do anything Lil. Decline the dare, delete the stupid account, we’ll order some fries and go home.”

Lily stared at her best friend. Her thumb running along the edge of her phone. She looked back down at the screen, and pressed ‘accept’. Mary let out a long stream of curse words in response. “You’ve got to film me, or else it won’t count.”

Her head bobbed up and down, as she placed the phone on the table and slid it over to Mary. “I just wanted some fries. Was that too much to ask for?” Lily shot her a warning look, before sliding out of the booth and glancing around.

She realized a problem with her plan a moment after it was too late.

“There’s no one in here but old men and kids I’m old enough to sit for!” Mary snorted loudly, holding Lily’s phone up in front of her and smiled.

“Should’ve thought of that before you turned down the fries Lil.” She lowered the phone away from her face, offering Lily a sympathetic look. “It’s not too late, you can still back out. Just let the timer run out and we’ll walk away like this never happened.”

Except it did happen. _Was happening?_ The timer had already started, which meant the camera was rolling. Lily was being streamed live, and like hell would her pride hold her back now. “Just one little kiss, thats all it is, right Mar?”

“Thirty seconds Lil,” Mary rolled her eyes, and lifted the phone so that the camera was back on Lily’s face. She glanced around the room, her heart beat gaining momentum. An elderly man sat in the corner sipping at his coffee across from his equally elderly wife. A man with greased up dark hair and shifty eyes that had been eyeing both girls since they walked in caused Lily to whimper in despair. Just as she caught sight of a busboy coming out of the back room, she was struck with a thought.

“I could kiss you—you’re in the diner with me!”

“Mum already thinks we’re dating, I don’t need her finding video evidence to back herself up.” Lily huffed, arms crossing over her chest. Mary stuck her chin out towards the back of the diner. “What about over there? Behind the menu, oi don’t give me that look—its likely better than the fifteen year old busboy you’ve been eyeing. You’ve got under twenty seconds by the way.”

Lily shrieked, turning and rushing toward the back table, where she hoped against hope it might be a member of a boyband, or perhaps even her mother, behind the menu and not another skeezy older gentleman. When she found herself standing in front of the table. She knocked against the top of it, and watched as the menu fell forward.

Staring at her from behind a pair of square spectacles was James Potter, football captain, Lily’s former lab partner prior to graduation, and all around ridiculously handsome bloke. Lily thanked whatever entity was in charge of stupid dare games for blessing her with such a cute boy to kiss.

“Lily Evans?” He was smiling at her the way he used to whenever they had to work on their labs, and Lily’s stomach fell to her toes as she slid into the booth beside him. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“James?” Mary was motioning violently behind her, pointing at Lily’s phone in her hand. The countdown was nearing its end. “I’m _really_ sorry about this.”

James mouth had opened slightly, a curious ‘what?’ perched on his lips, when Lily swooped forward and pressed her mouth against his. One second, two seconds—was he kissing her back— _holy bloody fuck—_ five seconds was not **nearly** enough. Lily’s fingers wrapped around his jaw, holding him in place as she pulled herself away. A stream of swears that sounded remotely like Mary were running through her head, and in the background of the restaurant they were sitting in.

Holy shit, the diner, _the_ _game_ , **the** **dare**. Her eyes blinked open.

James hazel eyes were staring back at her. His mouth moving slowly, though she felt it rather than heard anything that was coming out. Her mind was buzzing, eyes staring forward into James’, which had gone from friendly to worried as they crinkled in concern.

Mary whooped loudly in the background, and Lily was pulled out of her daze.

Dropping her hand from his jaw, she swallowed her fluttering heart down, and released a nervous laugh. “Sorry about that.”

Her voice was a low murmur, and James was now looking at her with more than just concern—but in confusion. Lily shuffled backwards in the seat, and tilted her head toward where Mary was sitting a few tables away with Lily’s phone held tightly in hand. Mary was pointing in glee at the screen, her brown eyes giddy. “S’alright.”

James shrugged, hand coming up to scratch idly at his jaw. Lily chewed on her lip, desperately trying to come up with an explanation that sounded better than ‘strangers dared me to kiss you’. She laughed once more nervously, head falling sideways against the back of the cushioned seat.

“I don’t usually make a habit of kissing people randomly while they’re eating you know, but I,” she bit down hard on her cheek, _no use prolonging the pain_. “I thought it might be fun to try my hand at Nerve, you see? And lo and behold, Mar and I are sitting over at that table there, when the screen tells me to kiss someone in the diner.”

James head is nodding, eyes watching her face as though her every word is fascinating. She feels heat crawling up her cheeks, but continues blathering in the hopes that it’ll go away. “So I’m looking around at all these old men and skeezy twats, just about to reach across the table and kiss Mar—when she spotted you hiding behind a menu, not that I knew it was you when before I came over here, but it seemed better than the busboy and Mar was adamant I don’t waste my kiss on her!”

“In reality, I think she just didn’t want to have to explain to her mum once more that we really aren’t dating, thought I don’t know why that’d be a problem if we were, but,” he’s nodding at her still, but he’s grinning slightly, and she can’t imagine her face could possibly become any redder than it was a moment ago, but here she is. “But, here we are.”

“Here we are.” Lily swears her entire body must be red now, and if its not already, then it is the moment that a laugh leaves his lips, the sound of it rumbling through his chest. “To be fair, I wasn’t exactly innocent in this.”

He tilts his head sideways towards the tabletop, where his phone rests with the words ‘Dare Complete’ bright and flashing across his screen.

“You play Nerve?”  

James shrugged half heartedly, fingers grabbing for his phone and tapping at the screen. “Doesn’t everyone?”

“Right,” Lily hummed softly in agreement, as James focused on whatever was now on his phone screen. His phone dings, and she thinks he must have received his next dare already. “Well, I best be getting back to Mary, I think she’s going to off herself if I stay over here a moment longer.”

She slides out of the booth, one hand still resting on the tabletop. James peeks up from his phone, that smile from a moment ago back on his lips. “It was great seeing you again Lil, dare or otherwise.”

Lily swears her heart has stopped beating, her cheeks still red from before flushing darkly once more. She sputters and curses internally, wiggling her fingers in what’s meant to be some sort wave goodbye before turning and racing back to where Mary sits.

Mary’s eyes are wide as saucers, and she begins to let out a steady stream of curses the moment that Lily slouches into the seat across from her.

“Lily Marie Evans, what in the hell—“ Her phone dings from where Mary grasps it tightly, hands held in the air. Mary’s eyes pause in what would be the beginning of a five minute rant to see what has come up on the screen, and when her mouth falls open Lily knows it’s got to be something good.

Lily launches across the table to grab at the phone, turning the screen towards her face where the Nerve screen still shows brightly. But what once had shown ‘Dare Complete’, just as she’d seen on James’ phone, now has a new dare for Lily.

Or it has to be terrible. Extremely, incredibly, horribly terrible. That’s why Mary’s mouth is still half-open staring at her from across the table with astounded eyes. Lily thinks she must have a similar look on her face. “You wouldn’t.”

‘Go with him to the city.’

Lily turned in her seat, eyes darting to where she just kissed James—the boy the watchers want her to go to London with _apparently_ —to find him gone. She knows she was only meant to do one dare, one dare to prove to Amy that she was something, someone. But she can’t help the way her heart falters to find that she won’t even have the choice of deciding about the second dare. James has already decided for her.

Someone clears their throat to her side, and she turns in her seat, expecting to deal with some swotty waitress—or worse, Mary—when her eyes meet James’. He’s standing with his phone clutched tightly in one hand, and motorbike helmet held loosely in the other.

“We make a good match—or the watchers seem to think so.” James was looking entirely more confident and far more handsome than Lily remembered him being back in secondary. He gave Mary a crooked half smile, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

When the two girls only stared up at him blankly, he held up his phone screen, offering it to Lily. Her eyes hold his, before dropping to where a Nerve screen similar to the one on her own phone flashes. “Looks like they want us to go to the city together.”

Mary’s eyes widened from across the table.

“Oh I don’t, I wasn’t really planning—“ Lily’s lips swiped over her bottom lip, staring at James’ hopeful grin through her lashes. Distantly she heard Mary squawking her indignations (albeit quietly). “I only meant, I’m not really _playing_ Nerve, you know?”

“Right,” James head bobbed, his smile never faltering. “Well if you decide, for whatever reason, that you really **are** playing Nerve. I’ll be outside.” His knuckles rap against the table top, and he ducks his head downwards as he walks away. Mary mouths a quick ‘ohmigod’ at her, eyes trained on James’ retreating form. Lily spins in her seat, gnawing softly on her bottom lip. Her eyes connect with James as his fingers wrap around the door handle.

Bottom lip still held tightly between two teeth, Lily gives him what is meant to be a farewell sort of smile, but makes her feel more hopeful than all else. He salutes the two girls, before pushing on the door and stepping out of the side entrance of the little diner. Mary’s shoulders slump downwards, her mouth in a perfect ‘o’ shape.

“I can’t believe you just did that. I mean, not that I don’t believe you didn’t have it in you, but holy shit Lil,” Her words come out in a rush, but Lily’s eyes are sliding away from her face. The numbers on her phone are ticking down, 53:41 the count is at, the numbers growing smaller as the seconds pass. “You just kissed James-bleeding-Potter, last years senior football captain, on a _dare_. While anyone and their mother with an internet connection could be watching—you wouldn’t even go up to Amos last summer when it was just Remus and I, holy bleeding **_fuck_** , _Lil_ —Lily? _Lily!_ ”

Lily’s eyes snapped back to Mary’s. The air around them buzzed.

“I want to go with him.”

“You want to— _you want to go with him_?”

Lily nodded once, her tongue running over her lips.

“Bleeding hell,” Mary’s head fell forward, smacking the tabletop. Her head rolled sideways, staring at Lily from just above the linoleum. “You want to go with him.”

“I do.”

“Right,” Mary ran a hand over her face. “Right. Look Lil, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove to Amelia here, but whatever it is, well mate you’ve done it! You played Nerve, you kissed James-bleeding-Potter, you’ve practically pulled a girls gone wild. What else have you got to _do_?”

“This isn’t _about_ Amy, this is about **me**!” Mary was eyeing her as though she’d gone mad, and with her hands pressed flat against her chest, eyes flickering between her best friend and the countdown on her phone—perhaps she did look a mild bit crazy. “This is about proving to myself that I can do something! That I’m not just ‘perfect prefect’ Lily Evans, that I _can_ break the rules sometimes.”

“You set Snape’s schoolbag on fire during lunch last week, I don’t see how many more rules you need to break!”

“Severus had that one coming,” Lily waved her hand flippantly. “But that’s not what I’m talking about Mar, you’ve got to understand!”

Mary groaned, turning her face so that it was once again pressed into the linoleum. She lifted her head and dropped it, once, twice, three times for good measure and groaned. Lily’s lips pursed, raising a brow at her. Her shoulders sagged, and Mary sighed loudly. “I do, Lil, _I do_.”

Her head lifted off the table, a large red indent pressed into her forehead, and a resigned look on her face. Lily eyed her best friend hopefully. Mary rolled her eyes, and tilted her head pointedly towards the door James had left out of.

“Go on, it’s only been about ten minutes. He might still be waiting for you.”

Lily’s fingers were around her phone, her body launched out of her seat before Mary had even finished her sentence. Her entire body was vibrating, Lily felt positively giddy. She glanced back, just in time to spot Mary raising her phone in the air, her words, ‘I’ll be watching’, offering Lily a soft reassurance she didn’t know she needed.

“James!” The diner door slammed shut behind her, and Lily was aware suddenly of how quiet the small street she was standing on was. Her eyes skittered back and forth across the parking lot, settling on a silver motorbike and the black haired boy who was tugging at his helmet straps at its side. Lily’s lips tugged upwards, he hadn’t left yet. “James!”

Her feet pounded against the pavement, while James’ head shot upwards at her shouting. The smile on his face was better than anything Lily had ever seen in the world, even lighting Severus’ bag on fire couldn’t hold a candle to the way James was looking at her now.

“Changed your mind?”

James’ grin was infectious, and Lily’s head nodded of its own accord. “I don’t want to just sit around watching everyone else go about this adventure. I chose player for a reason, just like you.”

“Just like me,” his smile grew wider than she thought possible. Lily held up her phone, the countdown on the screen now showing 41:22. James eyes flashed, and he passed her the helmet he held in his hands. “The cities about thirty minutes out from the bridge—which means we’ve got to leave now if we want to make it.”

Lily clipped the helmet straps together under her chin, tugging on the ends to tighten it around her head and her hair. He was leaning on the bike now, pushing the kickstand up and swinging a leg up and over the body of it. “Then you better drive fast Potter, I’m not about to lose now that I’ve just begun.”

**Author's Note:**

> Part of me wants to continue this idea into a longer, more fully-fleshed fic. I've got a few ideas of how it could potentially work out, but until I can work a complete plot out, this will remain as a little glimpse into the AU!universe.


End file.
